statins

Statins need no introduction. Although almost unknown 20 years ago, these drugs now are taken by about 1 billion people worldwide. They are popular for good reason: They are easy to take; have minimal side effects; are easy on the wallet; have a measurable biochemical effect; and, importantly...

BALTIMORE — New findings from a large national claims database show the use of cholesterol-lowering statin drugs to be associated with an increased risk for Parkinson's disease (PD), contrary to previous research suggesting the drugs have a protective effect for PD. "We identified 20,000...

The benefits of the cholesterol-reducing drug statins are underestimated and the harms exaggerated, a major review suggests. Published in the Lancet and backed by a number of major health organisations, it says statins lower heart attack and stroke risk. The review also suggests side effects...

Heart disease is better treated with a Mediterranean-style diet than cholesterol-lowering drugs, it has been claimed. A study found those who had a diet rich in vegetables, nuts, fish and oils were a third less likely to die early, compared with those who ate larger quantities of red meat, such...

Hundreds of thousands of patients may have stopped taking statins because of widespread media coverage of controversy over the drugs’ risks and benefits, a study in the BMJ has claimed. The UK researchers estimated that an extra 200,000 stopped statin therapy in the six months after a period of...

EXCLUSIVE GPs have been told to ignore current NICE lipid modification guidelines on statin prescribing in low-risk people, under a cost-saving policy at one CCG. NHS Stockport CCG has advised GPs should only prescribe statins to people if they are found to be at a 20% or greater risk of...

Jeremy Hunt has personally ordered all NHS bodies to temporarily pause negotiations of new contracts with GP IT provider TPP, after Pulse revealed patients may have missed out on statins treatment due to errors in the QRISK2 calculator. NHS commissioners have been sent the alert from the health...

Thousands of patients in England may have been wrongly given or denied statins due to a computer glitch. A third of GP surgeries have been told to contact people who may have been given an inaccurate assessment of their future risk of heart disease. The alert follows the discovery of a problem...

Aims Guidelines for primary prevention of cardiovascular disease (CVD) with statins, including the most recent, fail to make the best use of the evidence from clinical trials by concentrating on absolute CVD risk as a statin indication and not also considering that a major determinant of...

COPENHAGEN, DENMARK — When the media was dominated by negative news stories about statins, patients who were newly prescribed these drugs were 9% more likely to not refill their initial prescriptions (instead of refilling them), in a Danish national cohort study[1]. Moreover, compared with...